Ends and Begins
by Kittioto
Summary: ..This story has been discontinued due to massive writer's block..A kitten finds Piccolo and so does its little girl. This cutsie story takes a sad turn in latest chapters.
1. Lima Beans

::: Ends and Begins :::  
  
(DUDE, that RHYMES! ~Pats herself on the back~ Oh yes, as for the loooovely disclaimer, ::: MAJOR SARCASM ALERT ::: I do not own DragonBall Z, I do not PLAN on owning DragonBall Z, and I will, thus, never own DragonBall Z. However, I do own Lima ~Snicker~ and Mae. But you can steal them. I don't care!!! It's not like I have any large sum of money anyway. So please, read, review, and fer goodness sakes ENJOY!)  
  
  
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He sat there promptly... he and all his pride in the meadow. Listening intently on the various - yet peaceful - wildlife with his large delicate Namek ears. Just another day of training. But for what...? He didn't know yet. Maybe for nothing... but he had high doubts about that. Whether it was another arrogant Saiyan, or alien, or androids... somehow the Earth was always facing a crisis. Perhaps, this time, it would be more of the Humans who were endangering Earth. Only time could tell. These were basically Piccolo's thoughts right then... how would Earth find it's way to doom? The entire Universe would appear to be doomed at times. First there was Freeza, then there was Cell... what else? WHO else? He had no doubts about the danger laying ahead. There's ALWAYS someone who wants to reek havoc... it seemed to be a given. But this was just one of many dark thoughts envading Piccolo's meditation.  
  
"Mreeeeeooow..." Piccolo opened an eye in his annoyance to find himself staring at a small orange and brown Tabby Cat. Almost just as quickly, he shut that eye.  
  
A deep rattling purr emitted from the grateful kitten's throat as it rubbed softly against Piccolo's crossed legs.  
  
"Cut it out, runt." Piccolo grumbled and stiffened slightly. Surprisingly enough, he actually remembered this cat.  
The cat obviously didn't understand Piccolo's command and continued to rub against his slightly levitated body.  
  
"I spared you once, but I somehow get the feeling you have a death-wish." Piccolo opened his eyes and muttered at the Tabby, soon afterwards feeling foolish for actually talking to the little rat.  
  
  
'It was about a month ago...' Piccolo thought to himself as the kitten started to extend and retract it's some-what small claws softly on his purplish-blue getup.  
'The fire in that village... how on Earth did this stupid little runt find me way out here?'  
The kitten had climbed into his lap now, rubbing against the Namek's chest with it's purr growing louder.  
  
Piccolo had seen smoke from where he was training at... not just ordinary chimney smoke, he was too far out in the wilderness for that, and far too much smoke to be some camp fire. So he had gone to investigate. He'd discovered an entire village set aflame by some punk kid with a torch, so, without further ado, considered, then put out the fire... in his own, little ki blasting way. He had heard rustling within' one of the shacks that were in less cooperable condition, blasted off the roof, found the stupid stray kitten, and pulled it out before the peice of junk "shack" caved in.   
He had set down the runt and flown off before anyone had the chance to thank him for saving - well, some of - their village.  
He had not gone back to the village since then, nor did he plan too. It was their business to put that scrap-heap of a civilization back together. Not his. But for some unknown reason, this rat of a creature had found him.  
  
The kitten continued to extend and retract it's claws on Piccolo... then it hopped up onto his shoulder, rubbing against the mighty Namek's ear.  
  
"Cut it out..." He muttered and snatched the loose neck fur of the cat, then some-what gently put it back onto the ground.  
  
Obviously the Tabby didn't get it, and just hopped right back up onto Piccolo's lap.  
Piccolo muttered something unclear and just let the cat do it's own thing... it wasn't THAT bad. "Crazy cat..." He closed his eyes and attempted to go back into meditation with the feline on his lap.   
  
"LIIIIMA!!" Piccolo's ears rang with the high-pitched scream of a Human child and automatically covered his delicate ears with the palms of his large hands.  
  
"Lima, here kitty, kitty, kitty! Lima where are y--" The girls stumbled into the meadowed clearing and gasped at the sight of Piccolo levitating with her cat in his lap.  
"Um... hello, sir." The girl just froze and stared at him. She was small, had shoulder-lengthed black hair, and some-how darker eyes than her hair.  
  
Piccolo stared back. "Is that it's name?"  
  
The girl looked blank for a moment, then nodded. "You're the man that saved her, aren't you, Mister? I named her Lima, as in Lima Bean, 'cause you saved her, and well you're sorta green, so I thought..."  
  
He didn't NEED to hear anymore. "Just take it."  
  
The girl nodded back and slowly came forward, picking up "Lima". "Thank you sir... for saving Lima and the village I mean. It sure was a nice thing you done." She held out her free hand to shake his. "I'm Mae."  
Piccolo didn't bother to shake her hand and merely closed his eyes. "Piccolo." He grumbled in response.  
  
Mae smiled slightly, then grasped Lima fully with her other hand. "I think she likes you..."  
  
Piccolo didn't bother to reply and kept his eyes closed.  
  
"Well um... I best be goin', mama's waiting for me..." Mae trailed off. "Thanks again, Mr. Piccolo!"  
  
He winced slightly at the use of the name 'Mr. Piccolo', but said nothing and the little girl Mae and her kitten 'Lima' left. It had been an awfully long time since he'd seen Gohan... and he would prefer not to be reminded. He was going to school now, anyway, and despite the fact that Piccolo didn't entirely approve of the sociality that Gohan was getting, he was still proud of the boy.   
'He's gone such a long way...' He thought silently to himself. Regardless of how much Piccolo says he prefers to be alone, he missed the boy dearly. All his life he'd gone without people - without company of any sort - but now being alone wasn't nearly as much as it was cracked up to be.  
  
He opened his eyes again, to see that Mae had gone. Of course she had, he'd heard her... but he could still see the trail of fresh footsteps left behind. How HAD that cat found him?   
  
... and why?  
  
It was probably just a coincidence. No doubt, in fact. But it still made him wonder. The girl was friendly. Even reminded him of Gohan to a degree... the open attitude, the eternally black features. She had WRECKLESS hair. Just about everything Piccolo would never have thought to look for in a pupil... in fact, he hadn't had a pupil in a very long time, and his thoughts would be really stretching it to think that Chichi would let him train Goten, or that Vegeta OR Bulma would approve of him training Trunks. Actually... that girl was rather strong for her age. Nothing compaired to the Z senshi at ALL, but still, not bad.  
  
"... Perhaps there will be another battle on Earth soon..." He thought aloud, still staring at the trail of footsteps left behind. "Maybe another alli would be a good idea..." A small smirk crossed his chisled features.  
'Perhaps Earth is doomed... and maybe one day it will all come to an end...' He thought silently now, 'But then again... maybe it'll be a while.'  
  
  
  
  
  
(Heeeeeeey! My first cutsie fic!! Or at least ::: I ::: thought it was cute. ~Wink~ Did you like? Did you despise? Did you think you were going to throw up? If all of the above, I'VE ACCOMPLISHED MY GOAL! Woohoo! So anyway, pleeeaase review! Pretty please with a cherry on top and marshmallow Piccolo's!? OOH OH! Aaand.. chocolate..!! YEAH! ... Sorry, I've been dieting. -_-** But please review! 'Cause I know ya'll love me, right!? *You better!*) 


	2. Dissaproval

(Okie... just as a little side note thingy, I really hope you're APPRECIATING THIS! ;) Heheh, I think my ego just boosted about ten miles. This is totally NOT my style of writing: Not only do I have the tendancy to avoid all things cutsie, and not only have I always had a hard time keeping up with writing new chapters (Which I wasn't planning on making more chapters for this anyway, I was going to leave you HANGING... that is, until I was black-mailed by Molly the blonde wonder-haired monkey-butt Saiyan girl who so-happened to be high on jawbreakers... ~Jolts a thumb her way~ That's right Molly, I'm gunna point this accusing finger at YOU! HA!!) but also, I am the kind of amatuer author who does not write scenarios in this fashion WHAT-SO-EVER. See Dream Maker to notice that... see how I say "I walked down the road, oblivious to all surroundings in general..." NOT: "MAE walked down the road, oblivious to all surroundings in general..." !!!!! SO THIS IS HARD FOR ME!! Okay, just felt like complaining. I'm done now. ~Cackles~ And yes, I am a slacker, and no, I do not own DBZ, nor any of the characters of DBZ. Back off, weirdos, I'm fourteen... think I own more than twenty bucks? Guess again. PLUS my spell-check on this computer is NOT working!! So if I make a whole lot of grammer errors, you'll know why. Alrighty, I'm done complaining... possibly. The end of my way too long "Author's Note"!)  
  
  
12-4-01  
By "Kittioto" ((tm) - hahah-)  
  
  
  
  
  
Mae continued on her way home, a bit shaken up by the sight of the green man. She didn't know much of what to think when it came to the fact that he was green... or that he was big and tall and SCARY.  
Mae shuddered slightly at the thought of Piccolo's large muscular arms, and what they could do to someone like herself. She had seen what he'd done to put out the fire in the village.  
She was just a little girl, after all... not really accustomed to meeting strangers. Nor large green men with her kitty in their lap. But at the same time, she figured he had to be okay... after all, he had saved poor Lima!  
  
"Thank goodness for that... what a great guy!" Mae thought aloud.   
"A little strange maybe... but I bet he's really nice. Maybe I could come back sometime and visit him... what do you think, Lima?" She stroaked the Tabby softly, and Lima purred in response.   
"I'd take you with me too... every day! I bet Mr. Piccolo wouldn't mind. Right Lima? Yup, he probably wouldn't hurt a fly! And I bet he gets AWFULLY lonely." Mae smiled and continued on her way through the forest. The village-in-process was just ahead, actually not being as far away as Piccolo had originally thought. Which, in his opinion anyway, was his mis-fortune. Piccolo had always seemed to try and stay as far away from civalization as he could... the Namek and people just... didn't... BLEND well in most cases. Seemed that Gohan and laterly Goku were the exceptions. Even some of the others had started to grow on him...   
  
'Feh,' He thought as he found himself still staring at the long trail of footsteps in the some-what marshy grounds. '..Like a fungus.'   
Sometimes Piccolo even found himself getting along with VEGETA. Before... well, they just didn't get along. It didn't happen. But Piccolo could almost find a certain peice of respect in Vegeta now, and his pride. Though, to him anyway, that didn't excuse Vegeta. Not at all. He guessed that they probably wouldn't become best buddies anytime soon... or ever, for that matter. He thought Goku was too forgiving to have Vegeta around... far... far... too forgiving. That was his down-fall with Raditz. Which soon after-wards became the down-fall of Goku himself.  
Far, FAR, too forgiving.  
... But as for the present, he could sense where Mae was going. Towards the north... perhaps north-east. Astonishingly not too far away from his own training grounds.   
  
"Another pupil..." He echoed himself several times. The fellow Nameks in his head seemed to be cheering him on: Nail yelling "YES, let's do it! This NEEDS to be done!" and Kami: "It might be a good idea... she seems nice enough! You could really use more company."  
  
Piccolo was about to tell both of them to shut up, before finally caving in.  
(It... might, be a good idea. Feh, not that I want company... but she could become strong.)  
Kami was estatic, as well as Nail.  
(Great! Now go catch up to her and ask her for permission!)  
(What? PERMISSION? Hah, don't make me laugh, old man...)  
(Piccolo, she's a lady, and well worth your time to be humble! I reccomend the kindest of manners...)  
(Kami, I can't believe you! You're too gentle.)  
(That's no way to speak to your counter-part, Piccolo... and it's true, she needs to be treated with respect.)  
(Yeah, well, I'm not going to drag her over here yet. I'm in no hurry, so just be patient, and in the meantime, keep it down!!)  
  
Piccolo closed his eyes to the footsteps after this small conversation with Kami. He didn't need to have a pupil yet... or actually, it wasn't a nesessity at all. He would wait.  
  
  
  
  
"MOM!!" Mae shouted through the open front door of their "house". - If you could REALLY call it a house. It was more of a shack, than anything. But at least it had a door.  
"Momma, I'm home!" She walked in, shortly thereafter letting Lima down to close the door. She still had no idea how Lima got out of the house in the first place... right after Piccolo had saved the Tabby, Mae had scooped her up and wouldn't let her out of her sight since then.  
After a couple seconds Mae's Mother replied with a "Welcome back, I'm in the kitchen!".  
  
Mae quickly took of her jacket and hung it on a crooked pole, then scampered to the kitchen.  
"Momma, I found Lima!" She smiled at her Mother, who was boiling a pot of stew over the clay oven.  
"So I see." Her Mother smiled back. "Where did you find her?"  
"I found her in the woods! Waaaay out in the woods, too... actually, she was with a friend." Mae peered over the pot to see what her Mother was cooking, sniffing it vigorously.  
"A friend? Oh really?" Her Mother chuckled, figuring that the Kitten must have found a bunny to terrorize or something.  
"Yup... he seems really nice, too. But kinna a stiff."  
Her Mother raised an eyebrow at this and looked over to the purring kitten who had found her favorite spot on the rocking chair behind her, then looked back over at Mae. "A stiff? Well, who was it??"  
Mae looked back at her Mother and away from the pot, blinking innocently. "He said his name was Piccolo."  
Her Mother didn't say anything for a few moments and just stirred dinner.  
"I've never heard of anyone in the village with that name... what did he look like?"  
"Uuuummm..." Mae considered, "He looked WEIRD. And strong. And almost handsome... well, if he wasn't green."  
"GREEN!?" Mae's Mother dropped the spoon she was holding, sending it burried into the stew.  
"OH dear... Mae, go fetch me a small twig, will you?"  
Mae nodded obediently and hurried back outside for a twig to get the spoon out. A few moments later she came in to find her mother sitting on the rocking chair with Lima on her lap. When her Mother saw that Mae had returned, she took the twig and dipped it into the small pot, fishing out the spoon.  
"Momma..." Mae began, "... is it really wrong to-" but her mother interrupted before she was finished.  
"Was it that thing that put out the village fire, sweety?"  
Mae blinked in response and nodded her head. "I think so... I found Lima in his lap. Lima really seems to like him a lot."  
Her Mother didn't look at her daughter for a while, and cleaned off the spoon handle with her apron.  
"... I don't want you to go back there, Mae." She said sternly, not once looking back at her own child.  
"But MOMMA!" Mae's eyes turned glossy. "Why not? He seems really nice... and he saved Lima! He wouldn't hurt a fly."  
"Trust me Mae... I don't want you to go near that thing. You're only five years old, I don't want something bad to happen to you. I don't know what I'd do... not after your father's accident..."  
Mae didn't dare go farther than that. She knew what had happened to her father. She was even surprised her Mother had brought it up... they never talked about it. EVER.  
"... Got it?" Her Mother finally looked down on little Mae, and Mae nodded as her eyes wandered to the ground.  
"Yes Momma..."  
"Good. Oh and Mae, honey? Go tell your father that dinner is ready, alright?"  
Mae smiled slightly and went to get her coat, then back outside to the building staff unit, with Lima trailing behind her every step of the way.  
  
  
(A/N: .... Wow, this is becoming less and less cutsie I think. Hey, this is all spur of the moment and all that jazz, so I have no idea where this is going (as well as you) so if you have any idea's that you think would be kawaii, go ahead and email them to me. ^-^ In the mean time, I think I'm actually enjoying this... sort of a change from Dream Maker, and yes, for I have SINNED by not working on Small Warrior!!! ~Dodges all sharp objects - lamps, chandelliers, file cabinets, etc. - ~ OWW! Alright, I DEMAND the name of the owner of that giant square grandfather clock!!!!) 


	3. Ends... and Begins

Authors Notes: … I've decided to give this story a strange twist. Yes, for indeed, it FINALLY has a plot!! In fact, it came to me but a wee five minutes ago… or at least part of it, anyway. This chapter may be cutsie… AND sad. Read and find out I guess. ~Evil laughter in the distance~  
  
Disclaimer: No… I don't own Piccolo. ~Snaps fingers~ Bummer!! Picco-chan rightfully belongs to Akira Toriyama and his coo imagination. I know nothing of rights, but FUNimation probably own sumthin' too. I don't own DBZ, nor Piccolo, but, I DO own Mae and Lima… and Mae's mom and dad. So don't take them. Unless you feel like it. ^_^  
  
  
Ends and Begins  
Chapter 3: Ends… and Begins (^_^)  
Finish Date: May 2nd, 2002  
Made By: Kittioto  
  
  
  
  
"DADDY!" The familiar but desperate holler of innocence ricocheted off of numerous different pipes, pillars, and half-finished walls. "Daddy, get up!!"  
  
'Daddy' would never get up again. He would never tell his five year old daughter to be good again, either. He would never hug her, nor tuck her into bed, or tell her a story about his work… ever again.  
  
'Daddy' was dead.  
  
"Daddy, PLEASE!" Tears streamed down Mae's soft cheeks like a waterfall all her own. There was no point in keeping them back at all. Not to a little girl's mind, anyway. Not after losing the only father she ever knew.  
  
The reddish-brown haired man, Mae's father, lay there motionless, under a concrete pillar. He probably hadn't even felt the pain long before it was over.  
  
The fallen pillar didn't even look like it'd detached from it's stand on accident… it looked like it had been blasted off… like it was all intentional. Mae paid no attention to the burn marks on the stone floor inside of the building staff unit work zone. She was too young to understand, too hurt to pay attention, and too angry to care.  
  
Her father was GONE.  
  
"Daddy, you have to get up!! Dinner's ready, daddy! Mom'll be angry if you don't come home soon…" She cried desperately, hoping that by some miracle her father would open his eyes, push off the large piece of concrete, and walk home with her to have stew, like nothing was wrong at all.  
  
No one else was around when the pillar fell. No one else was around when Mae's father abruptly became trapped under it. No one else was around when the air was crushed from his lungs like a whoopee cushion, and no one was around when Mae showed up to tell him it was dinner time, when he'd already stopped breathing.  
  
"Daddy, get up… please… please get up…"  
The little girl whimpered pitifully, bending over her father's lifeless form, unable to accept that long since his ribs had cracked under the weight.  
"You have to… you can't leave us alone like this… don't make mommy cry again…"  
  
When Mae heard no response from the corpse that used to be the man she admired most, she rocked back and stared at his gentle features. He looked calm… at peace, even. Mae couldn't believe he was dead. Not after all the stories he'd told. Not after all the hugs he'd given. He'd even lost a leg long ago, but he never stopped hugging Mae.  
  
"… You're not gone! You're FAKING it! WAKE UP, DADDY!!" More tears flowed from the five year old's eyes, hurt and confused.  
  
"WAKE UP!"  
  
  
  
  
  
~-~-~-~  
  
  
  
Mae's mother, Juune, jerked to alertness as she heard hard knocking on the shack's door. Mae was already late, and she'd become quite worried about her daughter. Springing out of her rocking chair, she trotted over to the door, and hurriedly opened it.  
  
What she found was a tall blonde man with a small beard looking at her, a sad look drenching his usually smiling face, and little Mae in his arms, fast asleep.  
  
"Oh my! What happened, Aundu!? Is Mae hurt!? Did she get lost…?"  
  
The blonde man, Aundu, shook his head slowly.  
  
"She's fine, ma'am…" Hesitantly, the lanky man made his way into the house and set Mae down on the living room rug, since Juune and her husband couldn't afford – or find – a couch.  
  
"Aundu, tell me what happened!" As any worried mother would react, Juune stood in front of Aundu, questioning him. She hadn't noticed the dried tears on Mae's cheeks quite yet.  
  
"Juune… ma'am… there's been an accident." Aundu's features turned even more forlorn, and he glanced sadly at the rotting un-finished floor that passed for a living room.  
  
"What… what do you mean… an accident? What accident? Are you sure everything's okay?" Juune was growing increasingly more tense, and felt a deep ache in her gut. The feeling that something horrible must have happened.  
  
"No… I'm afraid not." The man looked up into the now widowed Mrs. Fawl's small blue eyes. "Ma'am… Juune… your husband is dead."  
  
  
  
~-~-~-~-~  
  
  
  
  
Three weeks had come and gone. Things had gotten only little better. Every night at dinner, silence seemed to even echo through the nearly empty shack of a house. But at least there wasn't crying anymore at that… particular… time. Mae could still here her mother's mournful sobs from her small, empty, room.  
  
Some of the villagers had helped Mae and Juune along. They'd chipped in money to buy their food, sense they no longer had any sort of line of work, and couldn't support themselves. It was kind, but the looks on their faces when ever they saw Juune the widow, or Mae the nearly orphaned child… the looks only hurt more. Looks of sympathy, looks that would say "I'm so sorry" if they were brave enough to say it aloud. Mae ignored them. Ignored them all. Juune hadn't seemed to notice at all in the first place, like she was in her own little world.  
  
A world where her husband still lived.  
  
Complete sadness with only memories to sustain Juune kept her going. The memories were all she had, really. They didn't have money, that was evident, and she could find little if not no comfort from her friends, no matter how hard they tried. Times were hard. Breathing… breathing was harder.  
  
And Mae. Well… Mae distanced herself. From everything. She had no friends – there was no one even near her age anywhere nearby. She would just stay at home and draw, or pet Lima. Lately she'd begun to venture out into the woods more, where no one could hear her cries. Well, almost no one.  
  
  
"Hmph…" Piccolo grumbled loudly in annoyance. "That's the FOURTH time this week that she's come out here and started whimpering like that! And it's THURSDAY! What on EARTH could keep her coming back!?" Grumbling louder still, Piccolo got up from his meditation spot and flew sky-wards, just above his previous position.  
Spotting the young girl rocking back and forth, arms around her knees, sobbing like a wounded puppy, he simply sighed in vague frustration.  
  
"Why is it every time I go to meditate, she's ALWAYS nearby? What, does she have a tracking device or something?" With a slight scowl he folded his arms and simply watched the girl.  
  
Wild hair. Wild eyes. Both black. The girl didn't even come close to resembling her mother or father. Her mother had hair so blonde it looked nearly white, and her father was a natural red-head… they both had blue eyes.  
Piccolo knew none of this however, and simply observed from afar.   
  
"Sheesh, what's with all the blubbering, anyway…? Feh, probably scratched her knee a few weeks ago and can't get used to the loss of blood or something… weak humans."   
He thought aloud, rolling his eyes, but not moving from his position.   
  
Not yet taken his eyes off the small form, he noticed with mild interest the cat rubbing against Mae.  
  
"It's that bizarre cat again!! I swear, it's like it can smell my presence." Piccolo shook his head and lowered himself back to the ground, leaning up against a large brown rock.  
  
  
(PICCOLO! What are you doing? You should be trying to cheer the poor little girl up! You should be ashamed, Piccolo!)  
  
Piccolo grunted angrily at Kami's voice in his head.  
  
(Get lost, Kami!)   
  
(Well, I'd love to… but I'm sort of in a one-shot deal right now.) Kami thought telepathically to Piccolo, referring to their fusion.   
  
(Just mind your own business, old man!)  
  
(What are you talking about? This IS my business! I WAS the guardian of earth!)  
  
(No way, this is MY body, we BOTH agreed, so it's MY business! I'll do what I darn well please, and if you don't like it, you can just keep your pansy "back in the day I was worth something" thoughts to yourself!)  
  
Piccolo heard Nail's laughter in the back of his head and growled some more.  
  
(That goes for you too, Nail!)  
  
(My, my, I didn't say anything, Piccolo! Calm down.)  
  
(I'LL CALM DOWN WHEN I WANT TO!!)  
  
(… Touchy!)  
  
Piccolo was just about to blow something large up when he realized the girl was still only a little more than ear's distance away.  
'Eh… don't want her to realize I'm here.'  
  
(We'll settle this LATER! Both of you!)  
  
Kami and Nail seemed to be quiet aside from the occasional snicker for the time-being which was good enough for Piccolo. It would do, anyway.  
  
  
Arms crossed, and scowl plastered, the Namek simply remained leaning on the rock, listening to the little girl's sniffles and snorts.   
  
'Hmph… what IS wrong with her, anyway? You'd think someone died over there.'  
  
  
  
  
  
~-~-~-~-~  
  
(A/N: Wow... I'm really evil, aren't I? Once again, eternally, I am quite sorry that this was... quite... short. And I'm also sorry it took me soooo long to write!! I just started writing this chapter today, and figured I'd finish it up, too. Anyway, this has an actual PLOT now... my "One Shot" fic WILL be getting longer! So rest assured, more is coming. In the mean-time, PLEASE review me! Sometimes I get ideas from your reviews, even if you don't recommend anything, or state anything extra-ordinary... but it's much appreciated. So pllleeeeaaase!!!! Besides: Makes Kitt happy from reviewers gone reviewing and woohoo review whaahaahahaha!! ... Yeah.) 


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